William Shatner: Doing this interview is scaring me

William Shatner, 82, is best-known as Star Trek’s Captain Kirk. These days he prefers swotting up on British history to exploring final frontiers.

You play General Shanker in new animated film Escape From Planet Earth. Did you make it for your grandchildren? It’s all for my grandkids – and they loved it. I was trying to do something with my voice. I disguised it a little but they recognised me immediately, so it was a waste of time. I can put on a nose, a beard, a wig but that doesn’t do any good. It all fails and they’ve just got good ol’ me.

Is it true you took them to see your last animated film and they were so scared they had to leave? Yes. They’re two eight-year-olds and an 11-year-old now. Both ages are in transition – the eight-year-olds from childhood to young ladies, the 11-year-old from prepubescent to teenager so she knows everything. I took them to Over The Hedge when the eight-year-olds were about five. There’s a bear in the opening [scene] and both were so frightened we had to leave.

General Shanker is a military villain. Did you base him on anyone? He was sort of a Montgomery. I wanted him to be prissy. Poor Montgomery. There he was, trying his best not only to be a great general but to be political, too. I’m fixated on World War II and the strategies that were enacted as part of it.

You’ve said you don’t watch TV but it sounds like you might enjoy a bit of History channel? It’s true, I don’t. I was thinking about that, watching the Oscars, how few people I know. We rarely go out to movies. On TV, I only watch old movies or broadcasts of history.

So how do you relax? I’m reading voraciously. I’ve read three novels of Philippa Gregory’s history of Henry VIII. She’s a wonderful writer. I love all the talk about English history and the political machinations. I have a book coming out called Hire Yourself, about being self-employed and how the electronic means of communication – Facebook and Twitter – really help you get self-employed.

What else is coming up for you? Wacky Doodle is a new documentary about Star Trek: The Next Generation. And my one-man show that I did on Broadway and toured the US with is going to be shown in cinemas on April 24 in the US.

Didn’t that start off as a one-man show with two men? That’s right. It was a two-man show because this guy would interview me. There was another guy on stage who got in my way. So I substituted him for a chair.

Isn’t a one-man-show about the most terrifying thing you can do as a performer? It is the final frontier – the ultimate challenge.

Don’t you famously thrive on things that scare you? I guess I do. Doing this interview is scaring me, too.

What annoying things make you want to leave planet Earth? I’m very impatient and the older I get, the more impatient I am. So people who occupy my time meaninglessly.

You didn’t mention LA drivers – you must be very calm. Oh no, I’m in a frenzy most of the time. I deal with that with a lot of pounding of fists and spittle down both sides of my face. It’s much better to deal with it silently than waving your arms around or doing anything that attracts attention.

Do you have any hidden talents besides acting, directing, producing, making records and writing books? I think you’ve touched on everything. I think after that, I’m less than competent.

Is there anything you’d still like to have a go at? Everything. I’d like to have a go at walking down the street. I’d love to be able to play the guitar but not only can I not play the guitar, I can’t sing. But I do have a new album out called Ponder The Mystery that I did with Tony Kaye, Billy Sherwood and Rick Wakeman from Yes. They wrote the music and I wrote the lyrics. It’s a progressive rock album and it’s quite wonderful.

Did you hear George Clooney picked your version of The Beatles’ Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds on Desert Island Discs, saying it would make him hollow out his ‘own leg and make a canoe out of it to get off the island’? I subsequently did the song with Sir Paul McCartney. We had the best time and hugged each other and laughed like hell.

You once said you’d like this for your epitaph: ‘What was I afraid of?’ Is that still your first choice? It’s a pretty good one. I’d like to think about that. Maybe as I gasp my last breath, I’ll unintelligibly whisper something better.